Cinema Junkie

Satisfy your celluloid addiction and mainline film 24/7 with Cinema Junkie’s Beth Accomando. So if you need a film fix, want to hear what filmmakers have to say about their work, feel like taking a deep dive into a genre, or just want to know what's worth seeing this weekend, then you've come to the right place. You can also find Beth's coverage of other arts and culture events here.
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SD Fringe adds SDSU filmmaker showcase

'Park Opera' redefines opera in Balboa Park

Unpacking the virtues of Ryan Coogler's 'Sinners'
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The 17th annual San Diego Asian Film Festival runs through Nov. 12 at multiple venues with its home base at the UltraStar Mission Valley.
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Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz talks about films that highlights the best and worst in American politics.
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It's time for my annual check up with the Doctor of the Dead. Last year he diagnosed the self-aware zombie, this year he talks about Zombies for Humanity or zombies whose hearts have grown bigger than their brains.
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"Shin Godzilla" is the first Japanese film in 12 years to feature Toho's famous monster icon. On this podcast, I speak with professor Ramie Tateishi about the legacy of Big G and how this new film revisits the past and defines a potential new future.
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Another podcast from Horrible Imaginings Film Festival, this time checking in with horror authors about how to translate books to film and on what the written word can do that movies can't.
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FilmOut screens Clive Barker's "Nightbreed" on Oct. 12 at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas. So for this podcast I spoke with Mark Alan Miller, who produced the Director's Cut and was key in locating footage that had been thought lost.
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I'm in the mood for Italian horror thanks to composer Fabio Frizzi coming to San Diego to perform scores from his films. So let's talk about Frizzi, Fulci and the fever dream of Italian horror.
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Sometimes there’s just too much good stuff to cover so this week I am going to talk with a pair of filmmakers from wildly divergent films but what makes them fun to combine into one podcast is that one is a real documentary — "For the Love of Spock" — and one is a fake documentary — "Operation Avalanche."
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A text messaged Teen Critic review from Kimi Allen and Shelby Iacometti:
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Since Christian Bale's been making news for his outburst on the set of Terminator Salvation , I thought I'd load up the trailer for the film so you could see what's going on in front of the cameras rather than just the sensationalism behind the scenes.
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In "Yonkers Joe" (opening January 30 at the Reading Gaslamp Stadium Cinemas), writer-director Robert Celestin seems to know his way around a small neighborhood cash-stakes game of craps or poker. Watching the title character (played by Chazz Palminteri) work his magic - of inserting new cards in a deck or swapping out regular dice for weighted ones - is mesmerizing. Any time a filmmaker can give you an insider's look at a secretive world, it's a tantalizing point of view. Too bad Celestin wasn't content to stick to that world.
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The Uninvited (opening January 30 throughout San Diego), originating from the South Korean movie A Tale of Two Sisters, is about a young girl named Anna who goes through some odd experiences with her somewhat "mysterious and unsolved" past. The movie begins with Anna at a hospital and then she is released back home. She then finds out about her father's new girlfriend, Rachel. As Anna adjusts to her home, her sister Alex updates her about a few things regarding what's been going on, especially the relationship between Rachel and their father. Anna's memories of her late mother haunts her as she sees her mother's spirit back at the boathouse where she died. From the experiences that Anna goes though, Anna gathers the clues together and thinks that her mom has been trying to tell her something, a message pointing Rachel out as a "murderer." As the movie goes on, Anna finds out the truth of what truly caused the fire at the boathouse where Anna's mother passed away and what really is going on.
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The Sixth Annual San Diego Black Film Festival kicks off tonight, January 29, at the Regal United Artists Theatres at Horton Plaza with a mix of documentaries and short features. There's an opening night reception at 6:00 pm followed by an evening of films. Among them are Black Indians, a documentary narrated by James Earl Jones that looks to Indians of African descent, and Newark Street Preachers, about a group of New Jersey preachers who march where drug dealers and gangs rule in order to take back the streets. The festival will also be presenting their 2009 Award of Merit to actor Louis Gossett, Jr. (pictured left). Gossett can also be seen in the new film The Least Among Us on Saturday at 7:00 pm. Actor and martial arts expert Michael Jai White will be receiving the festival's Filmmaker's Choice Award.
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Katie, Adam, Joy and Destin on Main Street, Park City and celebrating Obama becoming president.
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Beth Accomando is taking a short break from film reviews and arts coverage to create a six-part video podcast called Stripper Energy. Check it out!